1. What is Theravada?
I would like to take a moment here to gather some thoughts on the recently convened conference entitled, Exploring Theravada Studies: Intellectual Trends and the Future of a Field of Study organized by the Asia Research Institute (ARI) on 12-14 August 2004, National University of Singapore (pdf).
The conference was, as keynote speaker Peter Skilling foretold, "an embarrassment of categories: theravada, hīnayana, and other old friends." The French-Canadian scholar was practically the sole saving grace. The only participant even coming close to him was the shy and unassuming "postmodern" Australian-based Malaysian monk/researcher Choong Mun-keat, author of The Notion of Emptiness in Early Buddhism. However all the participants contributed in their own ways (pdf abstracts file here).
Peter was the first to present a paper, the title of which had suddenly changed to Ubiquitous and Elusive: In Quest of Theravada. But I need be clear that I am not at all quoting his actual paper, which was designated a "draft" and "not for quoting." I am merely recalling his impromptu remarks.
"What is Theravāda?" the Bangkok based scholar forthrightly asked.
His resume is impressive indeed. He is associated closely with the Lumbini International Research Institute and other interesting projects such as The Fragile Palm Leaves Project (pdf), The Electronic Buddhist Text Initiative and The Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative.
2. Thai Cultural Intricacies
Now for those with little insight into Thai cultural intricacies it may be profitable to note parenthetically that the religion of the Thai population is by and large Bauddha (=Buddhistic, or as is generically understood, "Buddhist"), and decidedly of the so-called Southern "sectarian," Hīnayānic school of what is generically referred to as the Theravāda or "doctine of the elders" (or "elder cavilers"). And yet the system of religious observance that is followed by the Thais may more more clearly be referred to as "Sinhalese Bauddha," as Sri Lanka is the place where it took early form. Further, it may also be described as Pali Bauddha for its strict adherence to the Pali Language literature compiled more or less by the ancient Sinhalese. Yet however we may label it, it needs to be made clear that by "Bauddha" (generically described as "Buddhism"), we intend to mean 'a religious historical phenomenon,' or in Sanskrit śāsana.
3. śāsana as 'Religion'
With the Sanskrit term śāsana, Buddhism offers its own definition of the concept "religion," or at least something close to it. What is more, in view of my personal interpretive analysis of the "Buddha" as a purely literary figure, i.e. as chief protagonist of the broad, diverse, and heterogeneous collection of Bauddha texts, I thus regard "Buddha" as essentially a "code word" that represents a yet undecipherable compendium of asceto-shamano-philosophic lore and that is possibly traceable as far back as Old Iranian. And so I agree whole heartedly with Richard Gombrich (1996: 79) and interpret the "Buddha" as 'shorthand for the authors of the early texts with different opinions and attitudes.'
4. Bauddhic henotheism
In the 'theravādic' context, Bauddha is largely a henotheistic religious culture (or cult) that worships one (supreme) god without denying the existence of (lesser) others. In its developed 'mahāyānic' expressions, however, it is not so easily categorized. In the course of my research, however, my position has invariably shifted, especially with regard to the shifting nature of the category "Bauddha" (generically known as "Buddhism" or "Buddhist") itself, 'traditionally' perceived as comprising two large sub-categories: one older and therefore more representative, more 'faithful' perhaps to the original teachings; and the other, newer, less concerned with literality, but taking advantage of new literary developments, particularly regarding new writing techniques, and by traveling to areas outside the old 'middle-country' Magadha where Gautama as Buddha legendarily fasted, trod and taught for forty-five years. But for the sake of this note, "The Buddha" is a god. He is in fact the "supreme" god, the ultimate jina or "victor" of what the ancient Greeks referred to as apotheosization, 'man-become-god' in a context parallel to the winning athletes at Delos and Olympus whom upon their triumphs were drowned in the euphonic ovations of the crowd: "Die – O victor! Nothing here remains for you! You have only to ascend to the realm of the gods!" This ascetio-athletic agon of the Buddha: his esoteric jihād of the mind.
5. The scriptures as forgeries
Now back to Peter Skilling and his pertinent paper on the history of the coinage and the historical construction 'theravāda.' And let us ask again:
Just what is this 'theravāda,' this 'southern' 'hīnayānic' Bauddhic school ostensibly based on its vāda ('doctrine/dogma/theory') of the theras or 'elders' (but 'what' elders?), and which stringently deems the extensive Pali literature as its paramount ecclesiastical authority?
Peter was of course averring to the eminent 'Pali canon,' the vast collection of literary records that the 'theravāda' alleges to transmit. Yet, one needs to be aware of the "layered" textuality of these scriptures (which is what postmodern Venerable Choong Mun-keat will tell us about). One needs further be aware that, in terms of the explicit doctrinal claim that the Pali scriptures are "the word of the Buddha" (buddhavacana), these scriptures are certainly forgeries, not to mention bootlegs – indeed, they are grand unmitigated plagiarisms of more remote Vedic and primordial conceptions. But then this is just my own private research view and held by no one else but me, right; thus, a view beyond consensus and thereby contentious. O, how much more my research notes On the Bauddhic Episteme Sati-Vipassana: metaphor for Indra and his holy weaponry (vis-à-vis Rgveda 1:103). "We have added nothing, we have taken away nothing" is the theravāda-canonical refrain – and declaration that they alone are 'what the Buddha intended the sangha to be.' O, mythic discourse in a globalized world.
6. More categorical characterizations
The so-called 'theravāda,' then, is a highly differentiating class of Bauddhic faith with the strong propensity for conceiving itself in contradistinction to (i) all things "Hindu" and (ii) the perceived state of disciplinary and doctrinal corruption into which all other Bauddha sects have descended. More important still, it needs to be suggested that the so-called 'theravāda' is a historical construction. 'How to describe it?' Skilling dared to ask. Do we describe it as a system? A system of what: thought, ethics, monasticism, asceticism, yoga, soteriology, faith? Do we describe it as some these or all of these?
There would seem to be little room for 'belief' in this system, I parenthetically suggest, since Bauddha ultimately bases itself on the authoritative statements of an Omniscient Buddha. And to this extent alone it would have to be considered a kind of "religious faith." The 'theravāda' is largely distinguished by the outward appearance of its monkish class. But precisely speaking the Bauddhic bhikkhu or monk (lit. ascetic beggar, almsman) is not so much a 'monk' (from Greek monos, alone) as a 'cenobite' (from Greek koin common + bios life). He is less a loner and more a friar.
The term theravāda is indeed very "elusive," and as Peter pointed out, it is not a primary 'emic' term, a term of self-reference. In fact, as a mark of identity 'theravāda' is not to be found in the pre-modern period, neither in literature, nor inscription. The early European accounts of so-called 'theravādic' societies also failed to use the term, the author asserts. So when was the term "theravāda Buddhism" invented? Skilling suspects the process started in the second half of the nineteenth century as a colonial or globalized construction, one of the 'religions' or 'faiths' defined to satisfy census needs, to contrast with Christianity. He further pointed out that the term 'thera' (elders) does not refer to just any 'elders' but to a specific 'historical' or foundational group, i.e. the five hundred arahats who recited and collected the teachings of the Buddha at Rājagriha within about a year of the death of Gautama. This is stated, for example, in the DīpavaMsa, a text specifically concerned with school formation and affiliation: 'the Council performed by the theras is called the theravāda,' therehi katasaMgaho theravādi 'ti vuccati (4:8, as cited by Skilling). However according to my personal and yet-unverified information, the exact term 'thera' actually appears only twice in the early Bauddha scriptures, as uttered by the canon's chief protagonist himself. And in both of these instances Gautama is made to employ the term with regard to his own two 'elder' gurus, Alāra-Kalama and Uddaka-Rāmaputra. Thus 'theravāda' could well be viewed as an antecedent entity, and thereby embued with a rarified legitimacy by no means bound by a so-called 'theravāda.'
It has nonetheless become a textbook truism that (i) 'modern Theravāda' is the only surviving school of the many early "sectarian," or pejoratively speaking 'hīnayānic' schools from the earliest times' (fifth-third century BCE), and (ii) that its Pali language canon represents the earliest body of Bauddha texts. Both of these notions are patently wrong. It cannot be not true that the so-called 'Theravāda' is the only school that has 'survived into the present day,' Skilling explained , since the clearly historical Sarvāstivāda monastic lineage continues to be followed to the present day in Tibet. Furthermore, in regard to the relative dating of the texts, we also need to take into proper consideration the extent fragmentary portions of non-Theravādin canonical works written on birch bark scrolls in the Kharosthi script and the Gandhari (Prakrit) language. These date from the first century CE or earlier, though, granted, they do not constitute a scriptural canon.
7. The myth of buddhavacana
Important reference needs also to be made of the early Chinese translations of texts that correspond to the Pali collections of various early Hīnayānic schools. This is where the important study of Pali-Chinese comparisons comes in, along with Ven. Choong Mun-keat's valuable paper "The importance of Pali-Chinese comparison in the study of Pali suttas." Choong's thesis demonstrates two main points: (i) how a study of the Chinese collections illustrates their greater textual integrity, and (ii) that portions of some Chinese versions are probably older than certain parts of the extent Pali translations. He furthermore shows that the Pali language suttas are constructed in a 'layered manner over the centuries.' This obliquely evinces the intrepid proposal that the Bauddha canon is at least to some unmitigating extent a 'forgery' vis-à-vis the traditionally held position or 'article of faith' that the suttas are Buddhavacana, "the (verbatim) word of the Gautama," while of course this is rather more 'an extended allegory' (i.e. myth).
8. An ahistorical designation
And indeed, the impertinent disclosure of this textual myth throws rudely into question the future validity of employing 'theravāda' as an analytical marker for the socio-political phenomena known as "Bauddha." For as applied by academics and 'new adherents to the faith,' particularly beginning from the mid-twentieth century, what else can we do but dismiss 'theravāda' as an essentially ahistorical designation whose usage clearly 'chooses to ignore the complexity and relative lateness of the tradition' (Skilling).
Having thus said, we may now begin to see how so-called "Theravāda Buddhism" is fraught with presumptions (Skilling), a major one being that it does not represent the perspectives of those who traditionally adhere to the 'religion' (sāsna), i.e. the largely illiterate agrarian-based South and Southeast Asian peasants from whom 'theravāda' would implicitly have gained its "authorizing practice" (McCutcheon 2001). In the starkest of contrasts, the modern Theravāda would rather more be seen as a mark – even label – in the globalizing process of "social formation." In other words, a reflection of the utopian imaginaire and nostalgia that is spawned in the minds of western educated urbanites by global publishers avid to sustain such emerging market dreams and aspirations.
As a final word I would only surmise from the wonderfully hosted conference proceedings that, the increasingly apparent picture we are gaining of a so-called "theravāda Buddhism" is a picture more defined by its cultural inconsistencies than by the strained incomprehensibility of its meta-narrative and internal cult dogmatics.
